Leticia Gonzalez, an exchange student from El Salvador, shields her face from falling snow as she walks to class at Augustana College Thursday in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Written by

Jim Salter
and Jason Keyser

A powerful spring storm system stretching from southern Texas to northern Michigan unleashed a wave of weather extremes on the Midwest Thursday and threatened to bring its mix of hard rains, high winds and severe thunderstorms to the East by the weekend.

The massive system was wreaking havoc from the Rockies to the Rust Belt. Up to a foot of snow was expected in parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Snow and ice closed highways in Colorado and Wyoming. Rivers surged beyond their banks from downpours in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Tornadoes caused scattered damage in Oklahoma. Hail caused a ...